033 Bathsheba, Abishag, and a Kingdom On The Brink (1 Kings 1-2)

The room is cold, the kingdom colder. David can’t keep warm, and the palace drafts Abishag the Shunammite to lie beside him—an ancient remedy that exposes a deeper crisis: a fading king, a fragile succession, and a court willing to spend a woman’s future to buy a few degrees of heat. From that stark image, we follow the threads of 1 Kings 1–2 as Bathsheba steps back into view, not as a pawn but as a strategist and mother who knows how to turn truth into action.

We walk through Adonijah’s armored pageant and the alliances behind his claim, then listen as Nathan cues Bathsheba to confront David with a promise and a duty. Her words are careful and cutting, and they work: Solomon is anointed at Gihon, the royal mule becomes a sign of legitimate rule, and the city’s shout rolls down the valley. Mercy spares Adonijah—on conditions. What happens next reveals how the politics of the harem intersect with the politics of the crown. As Queen Mother, Bathsheba receives Adonijah’s “small” request to marry Abishag, a move loaded with dynastic meaning. She carries it to open court with formal precision, and Solomon hears it for what it is: a renewed bid for the throne. The verdict is swift. The kingdom holds.

Still, one name lingers. Abishag’s story fades into the margins, her life circled by decisions she didn’t make. We wrestle with that silence, the ethics of ancient power, and the way Scripture both records and critiques systems that consume women. Along the way we unpack name meanings, geography, and ancient customs to make the text vivid: why Gihon mattered, why a mule signaled legitimacy, and how the Queen Mother’s seat shaped policy. Above all, we keep sight of the God who keeps sight of those power overlooks—Bathsheba, Abishag, and all who feel shelved in the shadows.

If this exploration deepened your understanding or gave you new empathy for the women at Scripture’s hinge points, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with the question you’re still pondering. Your reflections help others find the show.

Transcript

Why Women In Scripture Matter

Jessica LM Jenkins 0:25

Every time a woman appears in scripture, it is significant because women are significant, and often they appear at pivotal moments where their presence is needed and necessary. In today's episode, we are going to talk through the story of Abhishag, and we are going to finish the story of Bathsheba that we began a few podcast episodes previous to this one. So go back and listen to those episodes about Bathsheba to catch yourself up for the end of her story as recorded in Scripture. But what is interesting is that though women's presence is significant in Scripture, sometimes the men around them treat women as a means to an end. They are even sometimes an authorial aside, giving background reasoning for the quotes, important events that are happening. But we know that these women are created in the image of God, and God cares about these women's stories outside of the parts that are recorded in Scripture. So today we are going to look at parts of 1 Kings chapter 1 and chapter 2. We're not going to look at the entirety of both chapters, but we're going to focus on the parts that talk about Abishag and Bathsheba. And we're going to consider these women's stories as presented in the text of Scripture, but also think through questions we can ask about their lives outside of what Scripture shows us. To give a little bit of context, 1 Kings marks the transition from David's reign to Solomon. So 1 Kings chapter 1 deals with the end, the very end of David's reign and the beginning of Solomon's. And then we're going to move on from Solomon to other kings after him. 1 and 2 Samuel dealt with Saul and David. 1 and 2 Kings deal with the kings that come after David. I am going to read as I always do my translation of 1 Kings 1 and part of 1 Kings 1 and part of 1 Kings chapter 2. I will, between the two sections, I will give you a brief overview of what happens in the middle without reading all of that text because Bathsheba and Abyshine are not the focus of that text, but it is important information to tie the two passages together. So 1 Kings chapter 1, starting in verse 1. And again, as always, I'll be giving you when I can. Not every name allows this, but when I can, I'll be giving you the meaning of the person's name, how it would sound in Hebrew rather than what we're used to. So we're going to call King David Beloved rather than David throughout this reading. And the other people, their names will be treated likewise. But I'll let you know who we're talking about. So 1 Kings chapter 1. And then King Beloved was old and long in days, and they covered him with garments, and he would not be warm. And his servant said to him, Search for a virgin woman for my lord the king, and she will stand before the king, and she will be to him an official helper, and she will lie in his lap, and she will warm my lord the king. And then they searched for a beautiful young woman in all the territory of those who wrestle with God. And then they found my father is a wanderer, the Shunammite, and they brought her to the king. And the young woman was very beautiful, and then she was to the king a royal helper, and she served him, and the king did not know her. And then my Lord is Yahweh, the son of Feast, lifted himself up, saying, I myself will be king. And then he made for himself a chariot and teams of horses, and fifty men running before him. His father had never rebuked him any day, saying, Why have you done this? And also he was very good of appearance. He was born after Father's wholeness, Absalom. And then these were his words with the Lord his father, Joab, the son of Zariah, and with Father as Rich, Abathar the priest, and they helped after my Lord is Yahweh. And then righteous the priest, and the Lord has built, the son of the Lord has cared for me, and gift the prophet, and listening, and friendly, and the mighty men, which were of David, these were not with my Lord is Yahweh. And then my Lord is Yahweh sacrificed a flock animal and cattle and a fattened steer by the so stone of the serpent, which was beside the spring of the fuller. And then he called all his brothers, the sons of the king, and all the men of the Lord be praised, the servants of the king. Now, Gift the prophet, and the Lord has built, and the mighty men, and his wholeness, Solomon, his brother did not he did not call them. And then Gift said to daughter of Oath, Bathsheba, the mother of his wholeness, Solomon, saying, Haven't you heard? For my Lord is Yahweh, the son of Feast, is king, and our Lord beloved does not know. Now come, surely, let me advise you some advice. Let me save your soul and the soul of your son, his wholeness. Go and come to King Beloved, and you will say to him, Did not you yourself, my Lord the King, make an oath to your maidservant, saying that his wholeness, your son, will rule after me, and that he himself will sit upon my throne? Why then is my lord is Yahweh king? And behold, while you're still there speaking with the king, I myself will come in after you, and I will confirm your speaking. And then daughter of Oath came to the king in his room, and the king was very old, and my father is a wanderer, the Shunammite was serving the king. Then Daughter of the Oath bowed, and she prostrated before the king, and the king said, What do you need? And she said to him, My lord, you yourself made an oath by the Lord your God to your maidservant, that his wholeness, Solomon, your son would rule after me, and he will sit upon my throne. And now, behold, my Lord is Yahweh, Adonijah, is king. And now, my my lord the king, you did not know. And then he, Adonijah, my lord is Yahweh, sacrificed cattle and fattened calves and sheep, so many of them. And then he called all the sons of the king, father is rich, the priest, the Lord is father, Joab, the commander of the army, but his wholeness, your servant, he did not call. And now my lord the king, the eyes of all those who wrestle with God, Israel, are upon you. To z to tell them who will sit upon the throne, and now my lord the king, the eyes of all who wrestle with God, Israel, are upon you to tell them who will sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him. And it will be as soon as my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that I myself and my son his wholeness will be considered offenders. And behold, she was still speaking with the king, and Gift the Prophet came. And then he said to the king and then they told the king, saying, Behold, Gift the Prophet, and he came before the king, and then he prostrated before the king upon his nose on the ground. And then Gift said, My Lord the king, have you said, The Lord is Yahweh will rule after me, and he will sit upon my throne. Because he went down today, and he sacrificed cattle and fattened calves and many sheep, and he called all the sons of the king, and the commanders of the army, and Father is rich, the priest. And behold, they are eating and drinking before him. And they said, Long live, King, my Lord is Yahweh. But me, myself, your servant, and righteous the priest, and the Lord has built, the son of Yahweh has cared for me, and his wholeness your servant, he did not call. Was this what my lord the king brought to be? And did you just not let your servants know who would sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? And then King Beloved answered, and then he said, Call to me, daughter of Oath, and she came before the king, and she stood before the king, and the king made an oath, and he said, As the Lord lives, who redeemed my soul from every distress, for as I made an oath to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, For his wholeness your son, will rule after me, and he himself will sit upon my throne instead of me, for thus I will do this day. And then daughter of Oath bowed with her face to the earth, and she prostrated before the king, and she said, Live forever, my lord, King Beloved. And then King Beloved said, Call to me righteous the priest, and gift the prophet, and the Lord has built, the son of Yahweh has cared for me. And they came before the king, and the king said to them, Take with you the servants of your Lord, and you will cause his wholeness, my son, to ride upon my mule, which belongs to me, and you will cause him to come down to the well, Gihon, and righteous the priest and gift the prophet will anoint him there king of those who wrestle with God, and you will blow the goat's horn, Shofar. And you will say, Long live King his wholeness, and you will come up after him, and he will come, and he will sit upon my throne, and he himself will rule in my stead, and he I have appointed to be the leader over the people who wrestle with God and those who praise the Lord. And then the Lord has built, the Son of Yahweh has cared for me, answered the king, and he said, Amen. Thus may the Lord, the God of my Lord the King, do. As the Lord was with my Lord the King, may he be with his wholeness, and may he make his throne greater than the throne of my Lord the King, beloved. And so what we see in this part of the first chapter is we have a coup. We have David, he is very old, and we have a son who is once again vying for the throne. So in this part of the chapter, it starts in verse one, where we have a very sorrowful, sad, almost pathetic picture of David in his old age. He is old. He is not even able to stay warm, even when covered with the finest wool blankets. And his servants, when you read servants in the text, don't think like um butler servants who like scurry around, like bringing you sandwiches and holding the door open for you. Not that kind of servant. Think more like royal officials. Okay. So King David is in bed. He's old, he's frail, he's weak, and his royal officials are like, this is a problem. Because not only is he unable to stay warm, what we see throughout this chapter is that King David is losing control of his kingdom. He is impotent in more ways than one. And so these servants rely on ancient wisdom, um, which wants to bring in a young, beautiful woman to see if she can revive virility in the king, whether that's sexually, whether that's mentally, whether that's just physical restoration. Um, there were medical practices in some of the ancient world that believed an aging man could actually take life and be revived by, in a way, pulling life from a young woman. And so they say we need to find a young woman to do this for my Lord King. And so there enters my father's wanderer, Abishag, into the story. And I just want to pause and sit and think about this because Abishag's story will continue in chapter two, and we'll get there in a minute. But there's a lot of questions up in the air, and there's a lot of discomfort with her story. You have a young woman, she's probably a late teen, early 20s. That was general marriage age in the ancient world, not 13, 14. Um, they wanted a woman who has actually become a woman, not an early pubescent teenager. And so she's probably late teens, early 20s. She is known for her exceptional beauty. She's from the um, she's a shunamite, so from a city in the tribe of Issachar, which is there, the tribal territory of Issachar is just south of the Sea of Galilee. So if you picture the Sea of Galilee and then the Dead Sea in your red mind, Jerusalem is pretty much straight west of the very top of the tip of the Dead Sea, and then the tribe, um, the territory of Issachar is just um west and lower than the Sea of Galilee. So there's a there's a distance there, but that's where they find this beautiful woman and they bring her to King David, and her job is to lie in his lap to physically keep him warm and to serve him and take care of him. The the term royal servant, nobody's quite sure how to translate it when it is used for Abishag. When it's used for men throughout other books of the Bible, it means a commander of some sort who is in charge of people. That contextually doesn't make sense for a young woman to be given any sort of authority or charge over people unless her charge is to care for and bring life to David. But that is her job, to kind of care for, give life to David, um, and to keep him physically warm. And so they bring her to the king. And the text says that she's very beautiful and she came to the king as kind of this royal servant, and she took care of him, and the king did not know her. So the king's impotence is he physically cannot um have sexual relations anymore. So she remains a virgin. And I just want to pause and dwell on this for a moment. Because as a woman, as a mother, I think about Abby Shag and I think about her life trajectory. She was growing up, um, we don't know what her home life was like, potentially with loving parents, family, community around her. Perhaps her parents were in the process of finding a betrothed where she could go to her betrothed's home and bear children and eventually become a matriarch of that household and have um in their little village prestige and womanly influence and an ability to thrive and have children and grow into the full expression of womanhood in um the Old Testament in Israel. She has all this before her until a group of powerful men decide that they need a physical sacrifice to try to care for their king. Somebody who, without necessarily consent, um, there's no consent shown in the text. Maybe she consented, we don't know, but often not. Um, somebody who, with questionable consent, is literally going to give up their future and their life in order to be a human hot water bottle for an aged old man. David is very old at this time, and she is very young. And so this girl is brought south from the tr from the territory of Issachar and down to Jerusalem. She is now considered a concubine or secondary wife of King David, even though she cannot have children because he is impotent. Maybe they were hoping he would get her pregnant and she could be a concubine and kind of restore some of his virility because she is very beautiful, but that does not happen. And so she cannot have children. And her husband, for lack of a better term, her master, is very old. He's not going to live much longer. And when a king dies, all of the women in his harem, all of the women in his family in his circle, um, either get passed to the next king as his sexual conquests, or um, if it's a son, because you're not supposed to sleep with the women your dad slept with, um, they just kind of finish out their days in quiet um solitude. From the research I've done, women in the king's household would at have some level of influence, especially over the king, um, but they were often more shut up and more kept in and had less freedom of movement in many ways than your typical peasant woman. A peasant woman in some ways had more freedom and influence in her community than a royal woman did. And so we see Abhishad being taken from a potential future to being completely objectified and in some ways dehumanized as a human hot water bottle for King David. Her job is to literally give of her life and her future for the last few months or years of King David's life while the royal officials are trying to keep whatever stability they can in the kingdom because they know David is losing his grasp on the kingdom. And so Abishag is expected to hopefully bring some life back to David so he doesn't completely lose the kingdom and everything falls apart, which would risk everybody's lives. They're hoping for this. Um, and so they're hoping that is what she does. But the price for Abishag is great because David cannot know her as a husband knows a wife. So she cannot have children. And if she has no children in the ancient world, she has no future. And so, though the royal officials find what they are looking for, they in many ways destroy the life of this young woman who comes and serves King David. And as we see in the next verse, the king is impotent. He is losing control of the kingdom. Not only is he cold, he cannot keep control of the kingdom because we have his son, the Lord is Yahweh, Edenijah, um, who is the son of Feast, that's one of David's more than six wives, one of The other wives. And Adonijah decides he wants to be king. Now, Adonijah is the fourth son. The first son, Ammon, raped Tamar, who was then killed by Absalom, who was the second or third son. The I believe the third son was the son of Abigail, who Abigail and her son are mentioned briefly right after David marries Abigail. It says, you know, he marries her, she has this son. And then nothing more is said about them in the text of scripture. So we do not know what happened to Abigail and that son. Children died all the time, very young. Death rate was very high. It's likely this child could have died at a young age. Perhaps Abigail died giving birth to another child. We we just we it's all we have no idea what happened to them. But that child is never in play for the throne. So it seems like he likely never reached adulthood. So first son was Ammon, second son was Absalom, who killed Ammon, and then made a coup against David and was killed by Joab. And then now we have the fourth son, I believe, which is Adonijah. And Agenijah figures he's next in line for the throne, and he exalts himself without his father's permission. He just decides daddy's sick in bed. Um, the best he can do is hug a pretty girl. And so I'm gonna take over. And so he is a great-looking young man who David has never disciplined or taught character or anything. And so he gets a chariot and a team of horses. And I want to contextualize that for us. And 50 men running before him. This sounds very ancient and quaint, and like, oh yeah, chariots, horses, and men. Um, think about wartime pictures you've seen from like World War II or wherever, where there's like a tank rolling down the streets of the city with an entire battalion of men marching in front of the tank. Okay. That's kind of this picture. Absalom gets a chariot and horses. That's the ancient world equivalent of an armored tank. He gets chariots and horses and 50 men running before him. That is in the ancient world a battalion. Um, so he basically arms himself, he sets himself up and like marches down the street like I'm taking over. I'm king. Um and he has some key backers. Joab, uh, the Lord is father, the son of Zariah. Um, he's head of the army. Um, he's the one who killed Absalom against David's orders, and he is very feared, very fierce. David doesn't want to do anything to curb Joab's abuses of power, and Joab is the one who got gave the order that Uriah was killed upon David's command. And so Joab has his fingers in all sorts of dirt, his hands are bloody, and he decides to throw his weight and the weight of the army behind Adonijah. Then you have my father is rich, Abathar the priest. So army and priest are backing um Adonaijah in his claim for king. But there's a group of people who are not backing Adonijah, and that's just as significant. So you have Righteous or Zodak the priest, again, a priest not on Adonijah's side. You have the Lord is built, Benaniah. He's in charge of David's specialized guard, and he's likely one of David's mighty men. Um, and then you have Nathan or Gift, the prophet, and a couple other people who aren't significant for what we're talking about today, and then the mighty men of David. So there's a significant group that is still loyal to David and not following Adonijah. And so the Adonijah gets those close to him and he makes a big feast. He sacrifices, slaughters animals, big feast. And he does this at Enrogal, the spring of the Fuller. Fuller is someone who does laundry or washes wool. It's likely a place where both the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, um, the El Rogel's right on the border there. And so him having his feast there is probably consolidating his power around the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. And it's it's a place both of them, both tribes would get water and potentially do this fuller work of taking care of wool. And he goes and he has a feast here. He calls all his brothers. Um El Rogal is about five and a half football fields away from the Gion Springs, which is right that which is the spring that waters Jerusalem. It's about half a mile from David's palace and about two football fields away from the southern wall of Jerusalem. So he hasn't gone very far. Um he's right outside the city and he goes there to have this big feast with his brothers, his other brothers, because David had a ton of sons. Um he goes there with his other brothers so they can renounce their claims to kingship, and he's having this big feast, and all of this is going on. Well, while Adonijah does this, Nathan comes um to Bathsheba. He comes to the daughter of Oath. And I mentioned in our first episode on Bathsheba that her name would have significance, though the meaning of her name didn't have a lot of significance in 2 Samuel 11, where David rapes her, and you can go back and listen to that episode. But in this chapter, in these chapters, we suddenly see why daughter of Oath is a significant name. And Nathan says to Daughter of Oath, haven't you heard? And he he recounts to her what Adonijah is doing, and he says, Let me give you some advice. Let me advise you advice. I love how Hebrew just directly repeats words here, both the noun and the verbal form. He says, Let me advise you advice so that you can save your lives. Because often in the ancient Near East, when a new king came to power, he would just kill any brothers or anybody else who might vie for that power. And he's like, Let me see. Nathan comes and says, Let me save your life. So we've talked some about Abishad. Now Bathsheba, daughter of Oath, re-enters the scene. We saw her back probably 20, maybe 30 years, um, 25 years previously, in 2 Samuel chapter 11, when David rapes her. And now she has had at least four sons. Um, Solomon being one of those sons. One of her sons, interestingly, she actually named Nathan. So she and this prophet Nathan have had a seemingly a close relationship where she has appreciated the ministry of the prophet Nathan throughout her life since we saw her in 2 Samuel 11. We do not know how much of a relationship she had with David, how often she saw her, how close they were. We don't really know anything about that. We don't know what her relationship was like with the other wives of David. Did she know Hagis, um, Adonaija's mother? Did she know Abigail? Did she know Abishad? We don't really know much of anything except she is now older. She's 20, 25 years older. Her son Solomon is raised. He is an adult. And so Bathsheba has gone this entire time living as one of the many wives of the king. And wives of the king don't necessarily have much power on their own. This is not like European queens and king or fantasy queens and king, where the queen has a lot of ruling power alongside the king. The wives of the king really don't. Um, they might have some influence. They might be able to do a power play on behalf of their son, but a wife of the king doesn't always have much influence, usually not much influence at all. The mother of the king may have significant influence, and that is where a woman can gain some power is by becoming mother of the next king. And that is what Nathan comes to see Bathsheba about. And he says, I want to save your lives. Let me advise you some advice. Go to King and you will say to him, Did you not make an oath to me? Now, this oath that King David supposedly made to Bathsheba is nowhere mentioned in the text. Scholars are not sure if Nathan and Bathsheba are making this up, banking on some senility on the part of David's part, where they can deceive him into being like, Oh yeah, I made an oath, even though he doesn't remember. Or if, I mean, just as likely he could have made an oath and it's not recorded in scripture, but they both remember. Um say that the comfort David comforted Bathsheba after their first child died and Solomon was born was a promise, was the oath that Solomon would reign. But could that's all conjecture? We do not know if David actually made this oath or whether they were making it up and when he made the oath, we have no idea. Um but David, uh, Nathan says that Bathsheba should go to beloved. She should go to David and remind him of this oath and let him know what Adonijah is doing, and that he will come right after and he will confirm what she is saying. So, verse 16 of 1 Kings chapter 1, daughter of Oath, goes to David in his room, and it reminds us when she goes to before David that he is very old. For the text wants us to remember that, and that Abishag is serving the king. Abishag is there, the king's latest woman. Let that sink in for a moment. At one point, Bathsheba was the latest woman against her will. Now, Abishag is the latest woman whose life is destroyed by King David. And so you have these two women whose lives were both destroyed by the king, standing together at the end of his life. One has found her voice and is ready to influence the crown to be given to her son. The other stands silent and remains silent and has no words to say. Bathsheba comes in and she bows face down before the king and he asks what she wants. And her her speech to him is very interesting because it's very direct, it's very bold. She says, You, my lord, made an oath that Solomon would rule after you and sit on your throne. But now Adonijah has just crowned himself king. Sh and you didn't know this. There's a play here. He didn't know, King David didn't know Abishag. He is impotent sexually, and he does not know that Adonijah has proclaimed himself king. He is impotent politically. And I find it interesting that the woman he raped is the woman who boldly points that out to him. She doesn't mince words. Um, later, and we'll talk about this in just a few minutes. When she comes to King Solomon, it's very formal language. It's set up in a very formal um frame, which it's also the courtroom when she comes and sees Solomon, not Solomon's private bedroom. Now, Beth, she was in David's private bedroom. She comes to him of her own choice to his bedroom rather than being taken to his bedroom. And now she, the woman he raped, can look him in the eye and say words that would have brought him great shame. To say, you don't even know what's going on. And she may not have meant it cruelly or harshly. It's just the facts of the situation. And David has to wrestle with this as a woman boldly brings him the news and says, You promised me this, and you're not holding up your promise. Shame. And your son is bringing another coup, a second son is bringing a coup against you, and you didn't even know about it. Double shame. David broke her life, he humiliated her, and now she gets to be the one to point out his double or triple shame, as the woman he cannot know because he is impotent stands beside him. The two women whose lives are ruined because of David's heat of passion or lack of heat and an inability to keep himself warm, these women stand to witness the crumbling of his kingdom. Bathsheba continues to say all the things that Adonijah is doing, that he sacrificed cattle, sheep, he called all the sons, blah, blah, blah. And she mentions, but Solomon, your servant, he did not call. Solomon's name, um, I've said is his wholeness, as I've read through it. It could also be his peace, but in Hebrew, the idea of peace is not just absence of conflict, it's wholeness, it's completeness. And I think there's a lot of play going on in these passages because these passages really are about the security of Solomon's throne. We are securing the peace and the wholeness of Solomon's throne and his kingdom. So his name is significant in here. And Bathsheba reminds David, his wholeness, your servant Solomon. Adonijah did not call to this coronation ceremony, Adonijah has set up. And so then Bathsheba, she has brought in front of David's face his shame and his failures as a king. And she says, But my lord the king, she's very deferential in what she says. She's bringing up shameful topics, but she's still referring to David with my lord the king, my lord the king. She repeats this over and over. She's using deference while she subtly shames her husband. She says, Now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you to tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. She reminds David of his duty. You haven't parented Adonijah. The narrator told us that. She doesn't have to say it, but everybody knows David didn't parent Adonijah. Um, David hasn't appointed a successor. Um, it would seem like the first book, the oldest son is going to be the successor. That seems what Adonijah and a lot of people are assuming, but it's David's job as king to appoint a successor for the stability of his kingdom so that it does not devolve into civil war. This is David's job. Bathsheba comes and says, shame, shame, duty. Shame, shame, duty. It is your job to tell Israel who will sit on the throne, your throne, after you. Because you are soon going to die, and she says this in a very deferential way, and it will be as soon as my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that if you do not do your duty, myself and Solomon will be considered offenders. We will be considered a danger to the crown. If you do not follow through on your promise to me, then my son and I risk our lives. While she is still speaking, Nathan, uh, the prophet is true to his word and he comes in. He does not mention the oath because presumably he may not have known about it, even though he knew enough to tell to remind Bathsheba of it. But he comes in and he also says, My lord, King David, did you just not tell me that you sent Adonijah to go crown himself? I mean, maybe that's what happened. I don't know. Is that what's going on? Could you could you clue me in to what your plan is? Um, because they're out there shouting, Long live King Adonijah. And I mean, me, I don't know what's going on. Zodak the priest doesn't go know what's going on. Benaniah doesn't know what's going on. Um, Solomon doesn't know what's going on. None of us know. We weren't we weren't invited to Adenidas thing. You haven't told us, like, could you give us a heads up? David comes in, uh, Nathan comes in and kind of says all this. Um, and then King David's answer is very interesting. We don't know if Nathan leaves or what happens, but King David replies, and his first words are call to me the daughter of Oath, call back Bathsheba. We don't know if she stepped to the back of the room or if she left while Nathan was talking, she has to be called back by David's bedside. And she came before the king, and she stood before the king. And then the king made an oath to the daughter of oath, and he said, As the Lord lives, verse 29, as the Lord lives, who redeemed my soul from every distress, for as I made an oath to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, His wholeness your son will rule after me, and he himself will sit upon my throne instead of me, for thus I will do today. And then daughter of Oath bows with her face to the ground and before the king, and she says, Live forever, my lord the king. King David. So David then calls in Zodak the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaniah, um the uh man in charge of his imperial guard. And so David calls in the head of the priests, he calls in the prophet, and he calls in um an alternate head of the army. And he tells them to take the rest of the royal officials and to take Solomon and put Solomon on the king's mule. Now we might think, mule, why not a horse? Well, I was just reading um that actually at this time mules were more expensive than horses. Um they were infertile. Mules are infertile, they cannot reproduce themselves. They are a cross, if you don't know this, between a donkey and a horse. And so mules are actually more expensive than horses during the kind of Iron Age Israel. And so this is like the fanciest animal you can have, but it's not associated with war in the same way horses are. So David instructs the priest, prophet, and army head to get Solomon, put him on the royal mule, and take him down to Gihon, spring of Gihon, or the well, um, which, as we talked about, that's about two and a half football fields away from where Adonijah is having his feast. Take him there, blow a horn, and say, long live King Solomon, and then he's gonna come back to the city and he's gonna sit on my throne, and we will install King Solomon as king today. David is officially going to hand over the reins of the kingdom to Solomon that day. He will secure the wholeness and the future of the kingdom for Solomon. Benaniah, the leader of the army, so it's significant who's saying this, he replies and he says, Amen. Thus may the Lord do for Solomon. As the Lord was with my Lord the King David, may he be with his wholeness Solomon, and may he make Solomon's throne even greater than the throne of my lord the king David. And so this first chapter, we see Abishag and Bathsheba standing at this pivotal moment with David. And then it moves from them and it moves to David securing the throne. Um, the rest of chapter one deals with Solomon being crowned in Adonijah. He can hear the commotion of the entire city of Jerusalem is rejoicing that Solomon is going to be king. They're rejoicing. Big party, big celebration happening in Jerusalem. They're again about half a mile. But they're like down in the valley. So Jerusalem's up on a mountain and they can hear the sound drifting through the valley. It's not like flat where the sound gets lost by trees. They can hear it as it comes down into the valley. Adonijah's like, what's going on? They're like, oh no, Solomon just got crowned king. Most of Adonijah's supporters flee to the hills. They don't want to be any part of a civil war. Adonijah's terrified. He runs to the tent of meeting and holds on to the horns of the altar. In verse 51, Solomon is told that Adonijah's holding on to the horns of the altar. He's afraid for his life. He's afraid Solomon is going to kill him now that Solomon has been crowned king. And Solomon, I'm mentioning this because it's significant for chapter two. Solomon says, I believe I'm reading the NIV here. He says, May um Adonijah says, May King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to the death with the sword. Verse 52. And Solomon said, If he, being Adonijah, is a worthy man, not one of his hairs will fall to the ground. But if wickedness is found in him, he will die. So they brought Adonijah to King Solomon. Solomon bows, or Adonijah bows before Solomon and then goes home. And so then David gives Solomon some instructions on how to handle a couple other people and last wishes, which are very violent and very, in some ways, revenge seeking, some ways justice, some way revenge. But David's last words in some ways are kind of sad because it's kill this person, get rid of that person. Some of it's justice, but it's also justice David could have met it out, maybe should have meted out, but he's pawning it off to Solomon that some of Solomon's first acts is to clean up some of David's mess. So David does all that and then he dies. And then Solomon, who was already crowned king, is now without any David ruling as king. So now let me read chapter two and we will discuss that. And I'm starting in verse 12 of 2 Kings chapter 2. Some of that middle part was also in chapter 2. And so his wholeness sat upon the throne of beloved his father, and his king was very established. And then my Lord is Yahweh, Edenijah, the son of Feast, came to daughter of Oath, the mother of his wholen, and she said, Do you come peacefully? And he said, In peace. And he said, I have something to say to you. And she says, Speak. And he says, You yourself know that the kingdom was mine, and all of Israel was expecting me to rule. But then the kingdom slipped away from me, and it was given to my brother because the Lord wanted him to be king. So now I have one request of you, and don't reject me, don't turn my face away from you. And she said to him, Speak. And he said, Please go to King his wholeness, for he will not turn your face away. Reject. And he will ask that he will give me my father is a wanderer, the Shunammite, for a wife. And then Daughter of Oath said, Huh, good, I myself will speak on your behalf to the king. And then daughter of Oath came to King his wholeness to speak to him on behalf of my Lord his Yahweh. And the king arose to meet her, and he bows down to her, and he sat upon his throne, and he set up a throne for the mother of the king, and she sat at his right hand. And she said, One small request I am requesting from you, do not turn away my face. And the king said to her, Request, my mother, for I will not turn away your face. And then she said, Give my father as a wanderer, the shunamite, to my lord is Yahweh, your brother for a wife. And then King his peace answered, and he said to his mother, And why are you requesting my father as a wanderer, the Shunammite, for my lord is Yahweh? Why not request for him the kingdom also? For he is my older brother, and with him our father is rich, the priest, and Yahweh is father, Joab, the son of Zarulah. And then King his wholeness took an oath again by the Lord, saying, Thus will God do to me, and thus will he add to me for my life, if my Lord is Yahweh does this. And now, as the Lord lifts, who appointed me, and who seated me upon the throne of my father beloved, and who will make to me a household, I swear that today the Lord is Yahweh will be killed. So the very last thing we see of Bathsheba in the text is palace intrigue. She has now moved from just being the wife of the king to being the queen mother. And you heard the deference with which Solomon greeted her. He arose from his throne. Kings don't do that. He bowed to her. Kings don't do that. He recognizes her role in getting him into power. He recognizes all this. He bows to her. He gets her a throne and has her sit next to him as his right hand, seeming to rule alongside him. So she's in a great position of power. And then she asks her request, which Adonijah brought to her with regards to Abishag. But let's go back and think about this from the beginning. Solomon is king. She is the queen mother in charge of the women of the palace. She is the matriarch of the palace. She actually does have authority and influence and power now as Queen Mother. She's in charge of the women of the palace. And so Adonijah comes to her to appeal that Abishag be given to him as a wife. Now, this is a very curious request because either Adonijah is kind of stupid, or he is scheming still for the crown. We don't know which it is. He doesn't tell us. It could be a little bit of both. Because when a man desires to have a legitimate claim for the crown, one way to make this claim for the crown is to sleep with a member of the harem of the previous king, which would be David. Solomon has not taken wives yet. In the next chapter, he takes a wife from Egypt, which is actually really significant because Egypt didn't give away their princesses to just anybody. That didn't happen hardly ever. And so it shows both the instability of Egypt that they're willing to do that and the greatness of Solomon that they were willing to do that. But that's the next chapter, and we're not talking about that. So Solomon doesn't really have women for him to take. David's women are still all around. We still have his six wives and concubines in the palace. Solomon's not sleeping with them because they belong to his father. That breaks all the laws of the Deuteronomy stuff. But Abishag is still a virgin, so David never technically slept with her. So she's technically maybe open for marriage. And so we do not, so Adonijah makes this request of Bathsheba, who's in charge of all the women of the palace. And he brings the quest request. He comes before her, seeks an audience with her, and it's very formal language. This, whereas Bathsheba's conversation with David and was fairly informal, chapter two is exceptionally formal. It's it's rigid, it's repetitive. Um I'm not gonna reread it to you because it just it's a lot of people repeating the exact same thing over and over. It's very formal language. And he comes before her and she she asks, Are you in peace? Because she knows he tried to take coup and he tried to be king. And he says, I'm here for peace. I just have a request. She's like, All right. And he he kind of whines at her. He's like, Well, you know I was practically king, and then it just slipped through my fingers, but it was right there. He even acknowledges it. He says, So now, since the kingdom slipped through my fingers, could I at least marry the king's last woman? Could I do that maybe, please? And either Adonijah's stupid, he's banking on Bathsheba being stupid, or he's conspiring for the crown. Anyway, this is not a smart move for Adonijah to make. He was told his life depends on him not being wicked, on him not trying to gain power. That is what Solomon told him in between these two events. So Bathsheba listens. She listens to the full part of his request and she says, okay, I will take your request to the king. Now, some scholars say, oh, Bathsheba is stupid. Doesn't she know Solomon's not gonna like this? Man, she really doesn't know how to play politics. Um, excuse me? Bathsheba's exceptionally astete. And as the queen mother, as the matriarch over every woman, the sexual politics of this are not lost on her. She is far more aware of the sexual politics of the palace than any man. She knows what's going on. She is no fool. And she brings the request to Solomon. And she comes in and she does exactly verbatim almost what um I lost a saying. She does exactly verbatim what Adonijah asks her to do. The only addition she makes is that she says one small request. As the only addition to Mit, she makes everything else, she states exactly as Adonijah asked her to do in a very formal request. Which, as an interpreter, I'm reading through this passage and I'm wondering what is Solomon thinking? Yes, it seems they're in the throne room, they're in the court, um, and whether they're in the palace or whether in the gate of the city or wherever, but this is a very formal situation. Does she normally talk to Solomon like this? Is he up that something is up, that his mother is like super formal language right now? Um anyway, so she comes and she verbatim relays Edenijah's request to Solomon, who does not appreciate the request at all. Some scholars say that Bathsheba was stupid and got in trouble with Solomon for this. I don't think that was the case. I think Solomon, she knew exactly what she was doing. She's bringing the request, knowing that Solomon's reaction to the request would secure the wholeness of his kingdom. It would get rid of the other claimant to the throne. And so she is, she was asked by Adonijah. Adonijah basically said, Would you give me enough rope to hang myself? And Bathsheba said, Bet. Here's your rope. And I'm gonna go see if Solomon wants to be the hangman. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go check on that for you. I'll be right back. So I that's what I think that Bathsheba is doing here. She is a powerful woman who understands sexual politics, who understands what it takes to get somebody on the throne. She knows that her whole life is attached to the throne, and her future is attached to the throne, and she is no fool. And so she comes before Solomon exceptionally formal. Solomon's not formal. He's fallen on his face and getting thrones and all the things. He's just excited mama came to visit. Mama's willing to look a little bit silly. I mean, I'm a mom. I'm willing to look like an absolute moron if that will protect my kid. I don't need to say face when it comes to protecting my kid. Not ever. No, we don't need to do that. I don't think Beth Sheba's really worried about herself. Her her relationship with Solomon is solid. Um, and so she she relates the request. I imagine, and sanctified imagination, there's a twinkle in her eye as she formally walks through this request. And I imagine, again, sanctified imagination. Solomon's listening, like, this is weird. And then he replies, and his the Hebrew on his reply, I would love to hear from a Hebrew scholar who knows more than I do because I looked and I haven't found anybody address this, and I've scoured my Hebrew databases, and I can't find any other instances of this. There may be, I haven't been able to find them yet. Solomon begins his reply to her, and he says, and why are you requesting Abhishag for Edenijah? That and why. Now, and why happens a lot, but it always happens in the middle of a phrase. You never, the first thing in dialogue in Hebrew, the first thing you say is not and why. You might say why. Um, and then later you might say and why, once you've, you know, first sentence just starts with why or what or you know, whatever you need to say. And then your second sentence would start with and. I have not found dialogue that starts with and um in the Hebrew Bible, and every and why that I looked at, obviously I could have missed one, but every and why that I looked at in the Hebrew Bible, searching for that particular phrase, um, occurs in the middle of dialogue, except for this one. And so I wonder, as a scholar, if this is, is it this is the Hebrew twinkle in the eye. It's him going, and why are you asking this? Like, mama, I can tell some things up. Like, but he's also in court. This is public proceeding. This isn't just the two of them over coffee where they can, they know each other so well they can finish each other's thoughts. He has to lay out the ramifications of this for everybody because she made this public. Adonijah asked her to ask Solomon. She chose the when, she chose the where, she chose the how. She did it in public so that Solomon's response is public, and he responds with the full force a public response requires. He's not angry at his mom. She chose to do this in public because I think she knew what was going to happen. When Adonijah asked for enough rope to hang himself, she carries the rope to Solomon and says, somebody's asking for a hanging. And Solomon says, then hang them. And so the text this part Bathsheba's story ends with her tying off the knot on the noose needed to secure the wholeness and the peace of Solomon's kingdom. Abishag, we have no idea what happens in the future. We do not know what her life was like. She may have lived as a widow in the abandoned part, not abandoned, like um, not taken care of, but like the part where the women who no longer are married to the reigning king, but you don't have anywhere else to put them part of the harem with any of the rest of David's wives and concubines that Solomon isn't gonna adopt in his own harem. She may have lived there for the rest of her life. And she was a young, late teens, early twenties. And now, however long she lives, she is just a harem member in the harem of the new king, but not a wife or concubine of the new king. And so Bathsheba and Abishag are women who both were used by David and by the royal officials to further their own ends. Their lives were both destroyed by men in power. And Bathsheba gains power. God is gracious to her, he is gentle to her, he he lifts her up, he allows her son to become king, he gives her a future. Abishag, we are just left with questions. Maybe Solomon Mary let her marry somebody else who didn't have any claim to the throne, so it doesn't matter because, you know, he's just some guy from Dude Hickville and he has no claim to the throne. So whatever you can marry. Who knows what happened to Abishag? But this is a reminder to us that what we see in Scripture is not God condoning the way people are treated, but God recognizing that corrupt power kingships always lead to the belittlement and abuse and stolen lives of women. A few women might rise to the top, and it's easy to focus on them, and I'm thankful for the way Bathsheba's story ended, that she was in a safe, secure place at the end. I'm glad for her for that. But I think of all of the other women that if they did not out, that if they outlived David, especially the young, especially Abishag, some of David's wife's wives may have been near his age, so they may have died before or around the time he did, or they're old women and they're just happy to live out their days with their grandbabies. But Abishag, her future was stolen. God does not condone the theft of the life of young women. It is recorded in Scripture, but it is not condoned by God Almighty. It is a final nail in the coffin of David's use and abuse of women and creation of a culture where women are commodified and used and not given dignity. And unfortunately, we see Solomon continue this in his life. He marries hundreds of women who are just going to sit in harems, and that is their lives. And so as we ponder the story of Bathsheba, as we ponder the story of Abishad, Abishad, we remember that God was with these women and he knows intimately the we have questions. We have questions about their future. We have questions about the interim periods between chapters, we have questions about who their friends were and what their futures were like, and were they happy and did they or did they just waste away? We have questions, but God knows. He knows what happened to Abishag. He knows maybe she was running away from an abusive family and happy to go see David. Maybe she had a loving family and a boy she was hoping to marry and That was all ripped from her. We don't know, but God knows. And so as you ponder these hard accounts, as you consider does God see me in my darkness when I feel like I've just been shelved and put to the side, the answer is yes. He recorded Abishag's story in scripture not just as a vehicle to show how David secure or how Solomon secures the throne from Adonijah, even though in textually that's kind of what she functions as. But God sees her as a significant person that it's important to note that her life was stolen by corrupt kings. God told Israel, if you get a king, he is going to steal the lives of your daughters and your sons. He is going to take and take and take and take. And Israel said, That's what we want. And God said, Okay. And let me show you the collateral damage of what you've asked for. I have given you free will. Here is the results. So I don't have a super happy ending for the end of this series on Bathsheba. She is in a better place. She is Queen Mother. She has power. She has authority. She has secured her son. Abishag fades into darkness with a little hope for a future. But God sees them both. And God cares for them both. And that is what I want to leave you with. The almighty, ever-seeing care of the God who sees us even when those in power don't, even when those in power take advantage, even when those in power steal. God sees, He cares, He records. You, Bathsheba, Abishag, all matter to the living God, Almighty, the just and righteous king, the one king whose reign does not end in the abuse and suffering of women. That king is the one who will be coming again. And that is the king for whom we wait with eager expectation. Thank you so much for being here. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make his face shine upon you and give you peace, wholeness. Until next time.